


wherever i'm with you

by justdoityoufucker



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adoption, Adoptive Parenthood, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Tsunade, Canon-Typical Violence, Family and Bonds, Family of Choice, Gen, It's About The Lore, Post-Kyuubi Attack, Rebuilding, non-canon backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 04:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19456357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdoityoufucker/pseuds/justdoityoufucker
Summary: The return of the Sannin Senju Tsunade is somewhat earlier than most would have thought.Chapter 2: It seemed like Tsunade was busier than ever.





	1. exodus

**Author's Note:**

> marked complete but will be updated! all the chapters can also be read as standalone vignettes in the same universe

Senju Tsunade was by no means a fool, nor was she born yesterday. When news reached her in the Land of Hot Water that Konohagakure had been the victim of some sort of attack and that the Yondaime Hokage had perished in said attack, she did what any world-renowned shinobi would do. She told Shizune to pack their stuff up, and mentally prepared herself to return to her hometown for the first time in nearly a decade.

And mental preparation was needed. The village itself was still in the process of being rebuilt, but it was clear that the attack was not from one of the neighboring countries, nor anything that Tsunade could think of. Massive swaths of land were gouged, scarring the beauty of the landscape in and around the village, but the damage to the land was secondary to the damage wreaked on the village itself. Buildings that had stood since her grandfather was Hokage were gone, with so little rubble remaining that it seemed as though they never existed at all. The administration building and the monument, in particular, were difficult to face. The Hokage’s offices and connected school building were heavily damaged by fire, and there were several gouges not dissimilar to those outside the village, though they marred the visages on the monument.

Horrors had happened in the village. That was as much as Tsunade could tell. She sent Shizune to the hospital, which was luckily still standing, to see if there was any help they could offer, and to obtain information, though Tsunade suspected she would be obtaining information aplenty with where she was going.

The lower floors of the administration building had seen basic repairs, just enough to allow for use, and that was where Tsunade found her former teacher attempting to run the village. A hush fell over the room when she entered, as the people working recognized her. Their confusion was obvious, but she dismissed them with a nod of her head. After all, the village needed to be put back together, and the work they looked to be doing was indispensable. Instead, she settled her hands on her hips after she stopped in front of Hiruzen, asked, “What happened?”

Her appearance was enough to warrant Hiruzen’s dismissal of the shinobi he was talking to; he led her outside, the only really private place, and, with a sigh, told her of Minato and Kushina, the Kyuubi, and a child named Naruto.

( _ that _ is a reference she recognizes, and it is both endearing and groan worthy)

An attack by the Kyuubi explained things. The damage to the city and surrounding landscape, the acrid, lingering smell of fire, the cracks in the monument. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her former teacher and mentor, but Tsunade had a feeling that Hiruzen wasn’t telling her everything; she carefully catalogued what he told her in her mind, for reference when she talked to Shizune.

“I will be in the hospital,” she informed Hiruzen, who looked somewhat relieved that she would be helping.

“Please, return this evening. There is more I wish to discuss with you,” was his reply.

Going to the hospital was a good idea. It was where she was most needed; there were several difficult surgeries that she helped with and consulted on, and more minor injuries than she could count, both from the attack and from the rebuilding efforts. Shizune was already in the thick of it, and they fell into a familiar rhythm. Though Tsunade still occasionally felt swelling fear at the sight of blood, she forced herself to not think of it. There were far more important things for her to think of.

It was only late that night when they were free from the duties of the hospital and Tsunade found time to visit Hiruzen, again. It seemed a tossup if he would actually still be in remnants of the administration building, but luckily he was.

One of his assistants brought them tea, and Tsunade gladly set her feet up and rested. Shizune was finding them a room, and, as she had promised, food, and Tsunade hoped that Hiruzen wouldn’t take too much of the little time she had to rest and recoup until next morning.

It was pleasantries at first; asking what she had been doing, sharing what had been happening in Konohagakure. To say she was impatient would have been accurate, but it was clear that Hiruzen was, perhaps, nervous. Obviously it was not clear what he was nervous about, but the anxious energy seemed to be exuded and fill the room, setting her on edge.

“I know that this question is a heavy one,” he finally said after a pregnant pause, not quite looking at her, not quite looking away from her. “But it is important, and something I wish for you to seriously consider. With Minato’s untimely death I have returned to the position of Hokage, but it has been some years since I was in the position. The world has moved on from how it was when I was Hokage, and there are other matters that I would choose to devote my time to. I would like to know: is the role of Hokage one that you might consider taking? You have been closely linked to it throughout your life here in Konohagakure, and the people would not question you as their leader. The village needs a strong leader in this time of upheaval and tragedy.”

A plea, but not necessarily packaged as such. And so important a plea that Tsunade reeled for a few moments, unsure if he had really asked what she thought he had, if she had really heard her former sensei and man she had looked up to for much of her life asking if she would step into the role her own grandfather created.

“Of course, I don’t need your answer now; the village needs more stability before any big changes,” he added, giving her an out that she was glad to take, “but, let me know. If you do not wish to do so, I will look into alternatives.”

Tsunade slowly finished the last dregs of her tea, the air between them silent once more. Then she stood, slinging her shoulders back so they audibly cracked, letting her spine stretch. “I will consider it,” she said after a further few moments, “but in the meantime, I will continue with my work in the hospital.”

Hiruzen nodded, and he looked so relieved with that simple reply. “Take care of yourself, Tsunade.”

She nodded in return, and stepped out into the night. Shizune was waiting under one of the nearby streetlamps, a bag in one hand, looking somewhat aimless until she noticed Tsunade’s presence.

“There’s a bath waiting for you,” she said, holding out the bag. A few containers of food; it smelled like rice, miso, and beef.

“Good,” Tsunade said, rolling her head so her spine cracked as they walked down the streets to the inn. “Get to bed; we’ll be back at the hospital tomorrow.”

And they were. More surgeries, more injuries, more sorrow. Though the work was so occupying, Tsunade still found her mind wandering to the question posed to her mere hours earlier:

“ _ Is the role of Hokage one that you might consider taking? _ ”

Deep down, she always knew that becoming Hokage was a possibility. Even if her grandfather hadn’t been the founder of Konohagakure, she was known by all in the village, if not personally than by reputation. The work she did as a medic and shinobi during the Second Shinobi War put her in sight of not just Konohagakure and the Land of Fire, but the shinobi world as a whole. She was qualified, she hesitantly admitted to herself during her short lunch break, only eating at Shizune’s stern insistence and even then mostly drinking copious amounts of coffee. Tsunade would miss the road if she did decide to stay; she’d miss the freedom that she had, particularly the freedom from politics and petty shinobi wars.

Thinking on it pushed her no closer to a decision. If anything, it pushed her further into uncertainty, and by the time they finished at the hospital for the day, Tsunade knew she needed a drink.

A further week passed with no decisions, and more nights spent at the bar than Tsunade wanted to admit. By that Saturday, she was still in a deadlock, caught between pros and cons. It almost felt as if she’d never reach a decision, and spend the rest of her life on what-ifs and maybes. But, as tumultuous as her mind was, she didn’t and couldn’t let it interfere with her work at the hospital. For that reason alone she knew she needed to decide, and soon, and as she walked rounds with Shizune she considered telling her assistant and closest friend, knowing Shizune would offer no-nonsense advice that would knock her back to center.

She opened her mouth to form a question when Shizune mentioned a woman that she had not seen for many years and that, strangely, she had not seen since returning to Konohagakure. “Sarutobi Biwako,” Shizune said, and Tsunade gestured for her clipboard.

And there it was: Sarutobi Biwako, Hiruzen’s wife. She was doing well, all things considered, but it had been a few weeks since the attack. Nearly a month, in fact.

“How did she end up here?” Tsunade asked, hyper-aware of the fact that Shizune had probably just told her and she had obviously not been listening.

“She was Kushina’s midwife,” Shizune said, and it did sound like a reminder, but Tsunade squashed her own embarrassment to be caught not listening. “She helped deliver Naruto, then helped Kushina stay conscious until the Kyuubi was sealed. Chakra exhaustion from that, as well as her injuries. She’s recovering rather well.”

_ Oh _ . She stopped in the middle of the hallway, eyebrows pulling together, concern pooling in her gut alongside sudden, inescapable panic. “Naruto. Where is he? What happened to him?”

“Uh,” Shizune stopped too, turned, and her brow was pinched as she thought, “I...don’t know? If you wish, I can go and find what happened to him, Tsunade-sama.”

“Please,” Tsunade all but begged. Now that she thought of it, nobody had even mentioned an Uzumaki Naruto in her presence except for Hiruzen; she would have thought that, with what Minato had told him and he had told her, everyone would know about Naruto and would be glad to talk of him. After all, he was the reason the Kyuubi was stopped.

For some reason, Tsunade couldn’t kick the small kernel of dread from her mind for the rest of her rounds or through her meeting with the senior medics. Hiruzen would have told her if something happened to him, she knew he would have told her.

The unreadable expression on Shizune’s face when she finally returned that afternoon did nothing to alleviate Tsunade’s worries and fears. She forced herself calm, informed the medic in charge that she would be back the next day, and followed Shizune out of the hospital. The path they took was short and unfamiliar, at least until they were standing in front of a building that was wretched in its familiarity.

The orphanage.

Her mind seemed to be buzzing, hyper-aware but not aware as Shizune led her inside the building and talked to a worker that met them. The young, worried woman led them inside, to a room that was quiet and obviously loved, though dingy and haphazardly cared for. There were only a couple of bassinets, and in another minute, Tsunade was next to one, leaning down, pulling the baby inside into her arms.

Naruto was so, so tiny. Tsunade had considered having children, but after Dan’s premature death she had all but destroyed any thought of it. Yet, holding Naruto in the dingy room for babies in the orphanage, her own hurt and grief seemed to disappear, seemed to be dwarfed by an almost overwhelming feeling of protectiveness. She’d met Minato and Kushina a few times when they were still quite young, and had liked both of them--particularly Kushina, who was so like her grandmother Mito after Mito had passed on, both in that they were the jinchuuriki, and in that they were so kind and so loving and fierce. The fact that their child, their tiny, almost newborn baby, had been left in the care of the orphanage instead of being given the care he deserved--

\--the protectiveness disappeared in absolute, utter anger. She expected so much more of her old sensei, yet he’d set the boy aside like he wasn’t important, like he wasn’t the reason Kushina and Minato were able to save the village they loved!

She made a decision, one that she hadn’t even been conscious of considering but knew to be necessary. Tsunade tucked the boy against her chest, turned to Shizune.

“Contact Sandaime-sama and inform him Naruto will be under my--our--care from this day forward. I will fill out the necessary paperwork,” she said, and if her tone was frosty Shizune made no comment, “and--tell him I accept.”

Shizune nodded without question, and flickered away. Tsunade turned to the worker who had showed them in, and was meekly led to the office where the proper paperwork was filled out and rushed to be approved in the administration building. A perk of being one of the Sannin, or perhaps she just looked furious enough that they didn’t question her orders.

In any case, she left the orphanage a half hour later with custody over one Uzumaki Naruto, who was still tucked against her chest and had woken only briefly to try and blink but quickly fell back asleep, clutching a few stray strands of Tsunade’s hair. They’d have to go through Minato and Kushina’s things, she considered, standing for a few moments in the afternoon sun. God, they must have been so excited to finally have a child together she couldn’t help the familiar old ache in her chest at the mere thought.

“You’ll be loved, little one,” she murmured to Naruto as he slept, tufts of white-blonde hair picked up by the gentle breeze. “And you will not be alone. I promise.”


	2. settlement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seemed like Tsunade was busier than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello yes im alive still grad school is just kicking my balls and i wrote half of this while high so i hope it makes sense (as always, @shortgoblin on twitter)

With a decision made, it seemed like Tsunade was busier than ever. Of course, she and Shizune still worked in the hospital, though it was Shizune who picked up the bulk of the work there, but Tsunade would trust her to run it over anyone else. Tsunade found her time working split in many directions: coordinating rebuilding efforts, coordinating the hospital (though with Shizune, there was not much she needed to worry about there), getting the shinobi academy back up and running so the village’s children would be, in essence, out of the way, sending out as many missions as she could afford to keep the village afloat, and, her favorite, talking with the Council.

Tsunade hated the Council, to put it mildly. Every single one of them, including Hiruzen, refused to cooperate and compromise on even the simplest of things, and negotiations were not made any better by the presence of Naruto with her, either in a sling on her chest, or in the portable bassinet Shizune had found at a second-hand shop. She was not even officially the Hokage yet; after the rebuilding was finished on the academy and the administration building, uniting them as one building, then she would be coronated and technically assume full power over Konohagakure.

“Technically,” because the Council still seemed to think she would answer to them.

The problem with that, and one of the problems that Tsunade had always felt harmed Konohagakure, was that the Council held so much power. On one hand, they were old, which meant they were experienced in the ways of the world, but on the other hand, they were old and had not seen the world and the ways it had changed since their time as shinobi. Tsunade would not hesitate to say she did not trust Shimura Danzou at all, though Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado were loud, but relatively harmless. Hiruzen--

Hiruzen was something else. Despite everything with Naruto, Tsunade still trusted her former teacher and friend, and she wanted to believe that the incident with Naruto was something that would never be repeated, that Hiruzen would trust her judgement. But whatever Tsunade wanted, something in their relationship had broken in a very fundamental way. She found herself not immediately trusting of everything he told her; she found herself as her only authority.

It was complicated, and exhausting, and the amount of mental energy she had to expend not only to keep the Council happy but to essentially take over running the village was more than she would have liked. Taking care of Naruto, a month-old baby, was by comparison an easy task.

Tsunade had plenty of experience with babies, being a medic, and being, at one time at least, an older sister. At times the trauma and grief still made it impossible to bear being in Konohagakure again, being where she lost all of her family and many of her friends. Being with Shizune made it more bearable, and as the days passed Naruto’s presence also helped. He was like sunshine, like Kushina and Minato compressed together and amplified by ten despite mostly sleeping, eating and crying. The time that Tsunade was able to spend with him was some of the happiest time she had experienced, perhaps in years.

One of the first tasks Shizune set to on a rare free day from the hospital was to begin the somewhat monumental task of going through the things that Kushina and Minato left behind. Despite being Hokage and being able to, Minato had chosen not to move into the official residence of the Hokage near the administration building, instead moving with Kushina into a family apartment in the heart of the village. Their apartment had escaped the attack unscathed, which made going through it heartrending. Tsunade stopped by with Naruto when she had a break that day, and found herself unable to stop thinking of the young family, one of many, that was destroyed.

All the things of a young couple were there, hanging on the walls and tucked into bookshelves. Photos, mementos--

\--the small bedroom that had been turned into a nursery and then remained untouched. She stood in the middle of the room, Naruto cradled in one arm against her chest. The light snores coming from him were the only noise in the room, as Shizune was on the other side of the apartment. Home, Tsunade considered, was something she needed to think about. Creating a home, not just for Naruto, but for herself as well.

And home, to her, would always be the family house, even though it would likely never again be full of her aunts and uncles, her cousins and grandparents. She could live with that; she had been living with that for over a decade. There were the distant relatives, of course, but distant was the most accurate descriptor of their relationship. The Senju clan had already seen its heyday and was scattered to the winds.

Once the thought came to her of her childhood home, Tsunade could not get it out of her mind. There had still been a couple of cousins living there, taking care of the place, but that had been ten years ago and those cousins had been quite elderly at the time. Some quick digging in the census records confirmed her thoughts that they had passed on in her absence.

So the Senju compound had been abandoned, for almost seven years. She dreaded to consider what might have happened to it, especially in the wake of Konohagakure’s destruction. The thought of the buildings in disrepair was nerve-wracking, but the thought of absolute destruction even more so. She did not know which she would prefer to find, and could not stop fretting over it as her work continued.

Shizune let her stew in her conflicted feelings on the compound for nearly a full week, before she announced on one sunny but chilly afternoon that they were going to visit it. If Tsunade wanted to refuse, she never had the chance. She was grabbed and dragged through the familiar streets to a very familiar area of Konohagakure.

The gate was their first indication of the state of the rest of the compound, and it was not a good indication. It answered to the stroke of Tsunade’s chakra, unlocking, but it took Shizune kicking it open and grabbing the decorative lintel of said gate before it could crash to the ground, the jambs splitting to either side as the rotted wood gave way.

Tsunade almost wished they had not bothered visiting and she had just taken the offer of the Hokage’s Mansion, by the time they came in view of the house. It was too sad to see the house she grew up in giving in to the elements and the test of time, to see the once meticulously cared for gardens that Grandma Mito loved choked out by weeds on their walk from the street to the house.

And the house--

\--oh, the house was in worse shape than the gate had been. The doors and walls, uncared for and rotten, had collapsed in, leaving the framing of the house and unsteady, probably just as rotten elevated floors as the only parts of the building still standing. One shared look was enough for both of them to not even try stepping into the house itself. And it was not just the house, it was the outbuildings, the tea house and sheds, that had also collapsed into shells of their original states.

They walked through the compound quietly, through the overrun gardens and the ghostly buildings, and after an hour or so wound up side-by-side in front of the main house again, Naruto snoozing against Tsunade’s chest, the sun high in the sky.

“We could always,” Shizune started, after a few minutes of silence, and more than a little timidly finished, “demolish it and rebuild.”

“No,” retorted Tsunade before she could stop herself and admit that maybe, just maybe, Shizune was right, “at least, not all of it. The foundations are strong; grandfather placed them himself. We are keeping those foundations.” Naruto gurgled in the sling across her chest, and Tsunade took it as agreement, staring up at her old home, at what would be their new home. A wind swept past them, tugging at Tsunade’s coat, at Shizune’s loose hair, loosening flowering dogwood blossoms from the trees and hibiscus flowers from the shrubs, scattering the petals over them.

It is another couple of minutes until Shizune replied, a little more clipped and professional at the mention of Hashirama, “As you say, Tsunade-sama. When do you wish to start rebuilding?”

Tsunade’s shoulders softened, and she settled a placating hand on the small of her closest friend’s back. “After the city is healed. We can wait; others cannot.”

Tension ebbed from Shizune’s shoulders, at least a little. “Yes,” she said, and she smiled a little, “I’ll ask around if there is anyone free to at least look to the gardens before winter comes.”

Tsunade smiled as well, and nodded. Naruto gurgled again in his sleep, and they looked back to the house in tandem, considering.

By the next week, there were workers cleaning up the gardens. Tsunade knew it would be a slow process of restoration, and slow it was in the beginning, but by the time Tsunade officially took the Hokage’s mantle a half year after returning, the repairs and rebuilding were nearly complete. She, Shizune, and Naruto moved in after the first five months, the inn suite they had been staying in quickly growing small as Naruto himself grew. At six months, it was beginning to be obvious that he looked like his father, but his personality was as friendly and over the top as his mother’s had been. The news had broken unofficially of his adoption only a couple weeks after it had happened, and had officially been announced a couple days after. Once the official announcement was made that Naruto was under Tsunade’s care, some strange stress that had continued to run through the population since the Kyuubi’s attack settled and all but disappeared by the six month mark. Namikaze Minato had been their Hokage, yes, but Tsunade was a legend; there seemed no chance that another emergence of the Kyuubi would happen.

Of course, Tsunade had her own doubts, especially considering that nobody knew how the Kyuubi had managed to rampage in the first place. There was the obvious course of blame, but the Uchiha were as loyal as they had been ten years previous, and none of them had the power of Madara, the power required to control a Bijuu. Many other variables needed to be considered, as adamant as Shimura Danzou was that the Uchiha’s guilt was clear. Tsunade could sniff out a rat, as her past could show, and that particular member of the still-convened Council was beginning to stink. 

Change had been a long time coming to Konohagakure, and had truly arrived from the ruins of the Kyuubi’s rampage.


End file.
